


Coffee and Cookies

by Unforth



Series: Prompt Fics [10]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Business Owner Bitty, Business Owner Jack, M/M, meet cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 04:57:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 757
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15478161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforth/pseuds/Unforth
Summary: Ficlet written to the prompt: Bitty's new bakerry is struggling, until...





	Coffee and Cookies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hit_the_books](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hit_the_books/gifts).



 

Bitty rarely learns his customers names. They like his baked goods, and they come in and they buy a muffin or a dozen bagels or a box of cookies and maybe stuff a dollar in his tip jar. He did all the budgeting when he wrote his business plan, and he knows he can’t expect to be out of the red for the first year, but his savings and his loan are dwindling even faster than he expected. He gets loads of return customers, singing his praises, but it’s not enough. He’s screwed. Tip jar? Nonsense. Every single tip goes into the business, not into his pocket. The stress eats at him, exhausts him, and he gets to the bakery earlier every day, tries new advertisements, new marketing schemes, new giveaways, participates in new opportunities.

It’s not enough.

Until the day he upends his tip jar at the end of the night, and a personal check tumbles out.

Jack Zimmermann, it says.

No address.

No phone number.

Ten thousand dollars.

“To keep you afloat,” the memo says.

Bitty rarely learns their names.

He thinks it’s a prank, but he takes the check to the bank, and deposits it, and damned if it doesn’t clear two days later.

Who the  _ hell _ is Jack Zimmermann, and why did he give Bitty  _ ten thousand dollars?  _ That’s enough to keep the bakery afloat for a two months!

After that, Bitty eyes every patron, checks every credit card, but because the purchases are so often small, most people use cash. The bakery is in a business district, so lots of folks who come in look like they might have $10k to throw around - though now that he’s paying attention, Bitty’s notices he’s got a bit of a bias, he just assumes everyone in a suit is wealthy.

No one comes forward.

Maybe he should start asking every patron who comes in - hey, are you Jack Zimmermann?

Maybe it’s someone associated with one of his corporate accounts?

He has no fricken idea.

By the time he’s spent through the money, he’s given up. It was just what he needed, when he needed it most, and with a bit more patronage under his belt, things are looking up. He’s still living on ramen and yesterday’s unsold cupcakes, but at least he no longer feels guilty about how much ramen costs.

With success comes a little freedom to expand his business, to network. The local Business Improvement District invited him to a mixer, which is awesome, since he joined and has done bupkis since then.

Bitty shows up in a waistcoat, bearing a huge platter of petit fours.

It’s hosted at the coffeeshop across the street.

Jack’s.

It couldn’t be…

The owner is gorgeous - tall, classic good looks, the bluest goddamn blue eyes that ever blued - how  _ dare  _ he? - and he smiles shyly when he introduces himself.

“Uh, hi…”

“Jack?” Bitty asks. Jack nods. “Jack  _ Zimmermann _ ?” Jack flushes crimson and even looks hot doing that. “ _ Why _ ?”

Bitty doesn’t explain further.

Judging by Jack’s expression, Bitty doesn’t need to explain further.

“I just, um…” Jack looks away, looks back. “I just got to thinking - when I started my business, what was the one thing I really, seriously, truly wished for, ya know? And there was a lot - a steak dinner, a day off, a good night’s sleep, a couple reliable employees, I’m sure you know…” He trails off and looks relieved when Bitty nods. “But all I really wanted was cold, hard cash. So...um...helping?”

The shy smile is back, and his frackin’ eyes are  _ twinkling _ , and Bitty grabs his face in both hands and kisses him. His breath tastes like vanilla frosting - he’s been eating the petit fours, he likes Bitty’s baking, can he  _ be  _ any more perfect? - and yeah Bitty should have asked permission but Jack is kissing him back and someone standing nearby is laughing and maybe Bitty should let go?

Naw.

When they finally break apart, Jack looks dazed and breathless and brilliant red and  _ even more gorgeous _ .

“Should I have asked you on a date instead?” he asks.

“Not instead,” Bitty says. “ _ As well _ . And we can talk business - your coffee and my baking? We can make that money back ten-fold.”

“I was hoping you’d say that.” Jack whooshes you a relieved breath.

“That I’d go on a date with you, or that I’d want to work with you?”

“Both,” Jack says. “Definitely both.”

Bitty doesn’t believe in love in first sight.

But damn if he hasn’t been wrong before.


End file.
